Re: [ambient-light] Request for Ambient Light Sensor web developer feedback (#64)

This is an important discussion as we figure out the path forward for this API.

First, I wouldn't dismiss any proof-of-concept but encourage all web developers to share their experiments. Thanks all who already shared experiments with us!

Specific to https://github.com/w3c/ambient-light/issues/64#issuecomment-925605677, this is perhaps not the next Instagram, but a minimal functional example of a long-running task that wants to react to changes in a specific attribute in the environment, available light aka ambient light. The long-running nature imposes further requirements on energy efficiency of the implementation.

Given this group is committed to privacy-preserving APIs, I think using a camera API to monitor the ambient light level would be a violation of the [data minimization](https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/APIMinimization) principle. I'm not blaming anyone, web developers will use what they have at their disposal to get their job done. But I think we can do better and help web developers do the right thing the right way.

TL;DR: I'd challenge the group to think of appropriate abstractions that map close enough to the real-world use cases.

Another thought. Using an API for a purpose other than its primary function will likely confuse the user. For a camera API, the primary function would be to capture and/or display a visual image. This concern applies to all APIs that are multi-purpose, and is not specific to this case. Just wanted to note how gating an API behind a permission when it is used in unexpected ways will likely lead to a confusing user experience.

I know some native platforms allow prompting with a custom description with more context, but faking that to get the user to grant access is a concern. @marcoscaceres did Permissions API consider adding that feature and how did that discussion go?

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Received on Wednesday, 29 September 2021 09:36:38 UTC